Love, Development, and Snakes
by Psychic-Ghost
Summary: Four friends,Jasmine the skunk, Lily the raccoon, Fern the possum, and Amber the squirrel, have found the hedge and suburbia. On a mission to get some food, they run into Hammy and RJ. The four animals befriend the Hedgies, but developers are moving in...
1. It Begins

Prologue

"Jasmine, come on! Get up already!"

"Leave me alone, Lily!"a skunk mumbed sleepily. She turned over and stubbornly kept her eyes shut.  
A moment later, a sharp pain in her ear made her yelp and sit up."Lily!"she said angrily,  
glaring at the raccoon that had darted away to avoid the wrath of her friend. The skunk, who was, of course, Jasmine, muttered,"I'll get you later." Lily just grinned.

"Calm down, Jas!"chirped a voice from the trees. Jasmine looked over to see a possum emerge and come over.

"That's rich, coming from you, Fern,"remarked Lily, walking over. Jasmine flicked Lily on the ear."Ow! By the way, do you know where Amber is?"Amber was the other member of the foursome. The(normally) calm squirrel was probably off in a tree somewhere, scouting out the land for human houses to raid for food. Fern shrugged.

"Dunno, sorry."she answered, and darted off. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I'll go find her, Lily. You go get Fern, all right?"Without waiting for an answer, Jasmine headed away into the trees. After a while, she found the squirrel perched in a tree, as usual."Hey, Am. Find anything?"

"Yeah. Just north of here, there's a bunch of houses. So I see Lils got you up. That's a surprise,"the squirrel said, climbing down from the tree.

"Come on, then, let's go get Lily and Fern and be on our way"  
-  
Chapter 1

Jasmine smiled to herself as she scanned the yard for humans or pets from behind the hedge.  
Nothing.  
"Come on! Before someone comes!"she urged.  
"Relax, Jasmine,"Lily told her friend. The skunk rolled her eyes and climbed through the hedge, with the others close behind. They ran across the yard and into the house. Lily ran over to the counter, climbing up using the drawerandles. Amber followed, while Fern and Jasmine waited at the bottom. The squirrel and raccoon were about to toss down some mini-packs of food to their friends when they heard a noise behind them and spun around. A raccoon and a squirrel were climbing through, not having noticed them yet. When they spotted them, the two raccoons locked eyes.Amber, Jasmine, and Fern all exchanged exasperated looks, having seen Lily's expression. Amber took charge of the situaton.  
"Excuse me if I'm rude, but who exactly are you?"she asked, lightly elbowing Lily to signal for her to climb down. The squirrel did so herself."My name's Amber, and these are my friends, Lily, Jasmine, and Fern."She indicated each of them as she spoke.  
"I'm Hammy, and that's RJ!"said the squirrel happily. Jasmine smiled, and the raccoon looked at the small group and managed a small grin. "Hey. I haven't seen you around here before"  
"We just got here a few days ago."said Amber. Glancing back at the other tree, she said,  
"Come on, let's go. If the humans are up, I don't want to get caught." The foursome left quickly, returning to the spot they had decided to stay in until they moved on. Jasmine shot Lily a look.  
"We saw you, y'know,"she said teasingly. The raccoon blushed, and the others grinned.  
"Chill, Lily. You know just fine I'm not yelling at you."Just try not to fall too far in love--we don't even know if we can stay here too long yet, she thought but didn't say. Lily didn't reply, and Jasmine leaned against a tree, closing her eyes.  
"Good luck, though." 


	2. Panic and Plans

-One Week Later-

Jasmine sighed happily. They were still in the same place, due to Lily and RJ. The two had gone off to heist some food together. Amber was off exploring, and Fern and Hammy had gone off to look for the squirrel's nuts, which he had lost again. /Birds of a feather, those two./ Jasmine mused. Absently she wondered how Lily and RJ were doing. She shrugged. Lily was perfectly sensible. She knew when to stand her ground and when to run away. With the possible exceptions of Fern and Hammy, so did the rest of the animals in the small piece of woodland. Suddenly, Lily from the trees and ran over to Jasmine, looking worried.  
"What's up, Lily?"asked Jasmine. The raccoon looked like she had just seen a ghost.  
"While we were looking for some food,"said Lily, eyes wide,"we heard some humans talking. Apparently, there's some people who want to build houses on this spot of land"  
"Are you serious?"gasped Jasmine. Lily nodded grimly."Great. Just great"  
"I have to find Fern and Amber and tell them."Lily raced off to find the pair.  
Jasmine closed her eyes and wondered whether they would all be able to relocate in time or stop the humans. Neither possibility seemed likely, but obviously, nobody would want to choose the third, unspoken option. The skunk shuddered./Why must humans be so greedy for land and animal lives, she wondered. Jasmine sighed.  
"Wonderful. Just perfect. What are we supposed to do"  
"That was just what we were wondering,"grumbled a voice. Jasmine opened one eye and saw that Verne and his family had joined her. A few minutes later, her other three friends appeared. "RJ told us what's going to happen. You four are the wanderers. Don't you know of someplace safe, where we can all go?"the turtle asked. Jasmine sighed.  
"It's not that simple. All the places we've been have had some problem with them--predators, too many animals, not enough food--things like that.  
"Point is, there's nowhere we've been that's suitable for a group this size." the skunk finished.  
"What does that mean?"piped up Hammy. RJ spoke up before anyone else.  
"It means we've got to stop those humans from bulldozing our home!" he said he roically. Amber and Jasmine exchanged half-amused, half-exasperated looks.  
"How do you suggest we do that? They're cold-blooded killers, humans."Jasmine said coolly. Verne cleared his throat."Oh. No offense"  
"Actually, that just might work,"said Amber thoughtfully. "Maybe we could the humans away and then mess up their machines. Stuff something in them, I don't know"  
"Ooh, ooh, pick me"  
"What is it, Hammy"  
"We could stuff them with nuts!"said the squirrel proudly. Amber blinked.  
"That's...not too bad an idea."she said slowly. Hammy beamed. Amber looked at the others."I'll give it a shot. Are you gonna help?" 


	3. TroubleBig Trouble

A/N: Well,here it is! Chappie three. Finally, the plot moves on. This is my longest chappie so far, and a pretty decent one, if I do say so myself. Thanks to all my reviewers for being so nice! I'm not in trouble for forgetting a disclaimer for the last two chapters, right? If you have question about any chapters, just put them in a review and I'll try to answer them in the next Author's Note. If they're sensible and not like "How are you going to end the story?". And, of course, constructive criticism is welcome in reviews. And about the waut...cowersDON'T HURT ME!

Disclaimer: I do not and have never owned Over the Hedge or any characters that you recognize. I do, however, own the plot, Jasmine, Lily, Fern. and Amber. Steal any of them and I will hunt you down.  
Chapter 3

Jasmine watched the humans as they walked around the animal's home, their machines by the hedge. She heard Amber hiss,  
"Get ready to go...now!" Stella, Tiger, and RJ ran towards the humans, who, predictably, ran after them, attempting to catch them. Not that they could. If they got too close, Stella would turn them into stinkbombs. The three drew the humans away, while the others ran over to the machine, and, one by one, dragged the hood of the machines open.  
They used the nuts Hammy, Fern, and Amber had found to jam the engines. When they finished,  
they fled. Soon, RJ, Tiger, and Stella joined them.  
"Success!"Jasmine said proudly, giving them a thumbs-up, or as close a one a skunk can give.  
"You did it? All of them?"asked Stella.  
"As best we could,"answered Amber.  
"That's great!" said Stella. Now they could hear angy human voices, and Amber and Jasmine traded satisfied nods.  
"What if they realize we did it?"said Verne, worried. As usual.  
"Relax, Verne, humans aren't that smart."said RJ. He wasn't worried at all. Again, as usual.  
"Humans most certainly are not smart enough to know we did it."agreed Tiger.  
"A job well done, overall."Amber said calmly.  
"Amber? Fern? Can you help me find more nuts?"Hammy asked hopefully. Amber smiled.  
"Sure, Hammy. I think I saw some the other day. Let's go, I'll show you where"  
Hammy beamed and dashed away, with Amber close behind.  
"Hey, wait for me, you guys!"protested Fern, following. Jasmine smiled.  
"I'm going to go see the humans screaming and yelling. It's bound to be funny"  
she said. Indeed, there were still noises from the angry humans.  
"I think I'll pass."said Stella, and Tiger nodded.  
"I shall stay with Stella."he said. Jasmine shrugged.  
"Jeepers,"said Penny(A/N: Had to do that. Just had to.),"the kids shouldn't hear that any louder."Bucky, Spike, and Quillo's shoulders drooped.  
"I don't think anyone should go back,"Verne said."My tail's tingling like crazy.  
"The others seemed to agree, though oddly, Fern was silent.  
"Fern?"Jasmine looked around."Where's Fern?"Nobody knew.Jasming groaned, then dashed through the trees, calling,"Fern? Fern"  
"Jasmine!"The skunk's heart leapt. That was Fern! She sprinted towards the voice-  
-and was suddenly swooped up in a net! She struggled desperately, but only succeeded in entangling herself more.  
"Jasmine? Jasmine, where'd you go?"The skunk froze./There's probably more traps around here. I can't let Lily or the others get caught/"Jasmine?" The raccoon's voice was close now.  
"Lily, get away! There's human traps!"she shouted, renewing her struggles. She became immoblized.  
"Jasmine! What-eyaahhh!"Jasmine gasped as a series of shouts penetrated the air. The others must have come too, and been trapped. As heavy footfalls appraoched, Jasmine now realized what had happened to Fern.

A/N: Well, here it is. Hope it's as good as you guys hope for. Thanks again to my awesomely awesome reviewers. 


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